Monday, November 13, 2006

One Year, Less Some Hours, Mercifully Forgotten

One year ago tonight, I was in labour. I had been in labour for, oh, 18 hours or thereabouts. I would remain in labour for another 18 hours.

Thankfully, I've blanked most of it out.

30+ hours BEFORE arrival of the WonderBaby. Note ginormousness. Also note deluded smile, unique to women who mistakenly believe that it will all be over soon, and that effort of pushing a being the size of a prize-winning pumpkin through nether regions will be entirely manageable.

Tomorrow... tomorrow is for remembering the joy.

(That is - after a very exciting blogradio debate on feminism with Julie, hosted by Kristen!

This picture was taken in the early stages of labour - hour four, maybe? - when the contractions were still very much of the dainty 'ooh, felt one!' variety. I was in hospital already because I thought - wrongly, apparently - that my water had broken, and being GBS positive meant that I had to be there once that happened.

They sent me home an hour later, having determined that my water had not yet broken. An hour or so after that, the labour started getting painful, and worsened over the next, um, 28 HOURS. During which, I looked most emphatically like shit.

People. I weighed over 193 lbs in that picture (193 being what I had weighed in at five days earlier. Knowing me, and my partum-penchant for brownies, and the multiple helpings of creme brulee that I consumed at a wedding at the Four Seasons that weekend, I packed on even more poundage.)

You look great! I was momentarily jealous of the radiance of this shot, and that I have no photos, but then I remembered that my entire labour from first-ouch to baby-out was 3 whole hours, and at 1am to boot. I was refusing to put clothes on to go to the hospital and rolling naked in my upstairs hallway through most of my labour, so it's just as well there's not photo.

Question: did you wear your glasses throughout? I had a compulsion to take mine off, as they were making me insane and I needed to concentrate and I couldn't with my glasses on. And I'm a -6 prescription (ie, blind), so all my labour is literally fuzzy.

Holy freaking crap the doula in me is SHOCKED that you were in labour for that long (that is actually the norm for first babies *twinges to out that is) and did not end up with a cesarean. You are a blessed woman. Add the GBS comment that I just noticed and wow! You lucked out big time! BIG TIME! Worshipping the ground that you tread upon that day and a bit!Happy birthday dear Wonder baby! Happy Birth Day Bad Mother.Glad you are both around to tell the tale!k

Happy birthday to the little one...boy do you forget labor pains. Only on seeing your photo I thought of it - though mine was only 3 hrs I paid for it with 4th degree tearing and the resulting consequences for a whole week. That felt more like labor. Read your interesting post on second baby thoughts! Can relate to it!